Chapter 33: The Bottleneck Passage

Chapter 33: The Bottle-Neck Passage

"Thinking back on Mr. Hawking’s words, they truly give one pause for thought... Tell me, in reality, could it be that human souls first appear in their own dreams, after which a mother becomes pregnant, creating a 'pit' for them? Before a person is born, they are the deity of their own dream world, but gradually, those divine powers are restricted. If the dream world is happy, it grants them a sweet dream; if it is displeased, it goes on to torment them..."

"Alright, alright!" Jung immediately interrupted Fang Xiaoling, scribbling frantically in the circle on the left side of his notebook until it was almost a solid black orb. "We had an agreement: no philosophical discussions, and certainly no delving into the chicken-or-the-egg paradox."

"Then why did you draw an egg in there?"

"This isn't an egg! I just didn't finish filling it in. Just pretend it’s completely blacked out." Jung pointed to the black orb on the left. "This is still the dream world, the 'deflated bottle' we spoke of earlier. Only now, you have been assigned a task: you must locate the mouth of that bottle and seal it off completely."

"Mr. Jung, are you taking me for a fool?" Fang Xiaoling finally found a use for her pen. She snatched the notebook, flipped to a blank page, and drew a straight line. "There are an infinite number of points on this infinite line. Can you find one specific point? Your black orb is a surface composed of infinite lines. You want me to find a single point in there? That’s a billion times harder than finding a needle in a haystack!"

"To be precise, it is an infinitely large space, and you must find a single point within it." Jung flipped the notebook back to the previous page, pressed his pen tip against a spot on the black orb, and said, "Every time you fall asleep, the point where your consciousness first arrives in the dream world is the bottle mouth. The greatest challenge now is that you must maintain complete lucidity within the dream. The moment you enter, you must realize where you are, focus all your attention on that point, and use your willpower to envelop it entirely, sealing the bottle mouth shut."

"Focusing on that point... wouldn't I just get sucked in?"

This question earned her a flick to the forehead from Jung. Although the Astral Realm couldn't cause real physical harm, it was still insulting. Jung said indignantly, "How are you sometimes sharp and sometimes dim? If you focus your consciousness on the mouth of a deflated bottle, you’d get sucked in—but it’s a deflated bottle! Deflated! Have you forgotten? It’s not deflated anymore!"

"I know! I just forgot for a moment." Fang Xiaoling crossed her arms. "And then what? What happens once the bottle mouth is sealed?"

"Then, you must immediately exert all your imagination and creativity within the dream world, using your willpower to fill the bottle until—you burst it!"

"Burst the dream world with my willpower?" Fang Xiaoling’s eyes were full of skepticism. "This is pure nonsense. Why do I feel like you’re just using me to verify your own theories?"

"Even if I am using you, are you still willing to trust me?" Jung looked into Fang Xiaoling’s eyes, waiting for her answer.

For some reason, the image of Roland sitting in a cafe suddenly appeared in Fang Xiaoling’s mind. She saw that beautiful woman smiling confidently, taking a small sip of water from her cup, her red lips leaving a print on the rim.

The skepticism in Fang Xiaoling’s eyes gradually hardened into resolve within that memory. "I am willing to trust you, Mr. Jung."

But Fang Xiaoling seemed a bit slow to answer. Jung was already scribbling mathematical equations on a blank page. "This is not just my conjecture; it has undergone extensive mathematical modeling and experimentation. However, because the precise location of the bottle mouth remains unknown, a final conclusion is temporarily out of reach. I admit I want to use you to obtain the final experimental results, but I am truly not spouting nonsense. Didn't Leibniz give you some lessons before? You can use calculus to..."

"None of that matters." Fang Xiaoling grabbed Jung’s rapidly moving wrist, cutting him off. "I believe you, because I am clearly aware of my own mediocrity. On my own, I couldn't accomplish anything."

Jung looked up at her for a moment and let out a sigh. "My girl, you are not mediocre at all. It takes courage to trust someone. You are a brave soul."

"A brave soul?" Fang Xiaoling looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed. "That’s the first time anyone has said that to me..."

Jung seemed not to have heard her, his mind entirely occupied by the fact that they were about to enter the final stage of the experiment. "The dream world is sandwiched between the Astral Realm and the reality. Once you burst it, the remaining bottle mouth will become a passage that runs through both. And you are the only one who knows the specific location of this passage."

"After the dream world is burst, where will the bottle-neck passage be? I don't even know..."

"Didn't I just say? You already used your willpower to envelop the bottle mouth. Where do you think it will be?" Jung dumped all the books and pens out of his bag and began filling it with sand. "It will be in your consciousness, of course. From then on, you will be able to travel between the Astral Realm and the reality as you please."

"That is way too cool..." An image of herself wearing a red cloak appeared in Fang Xiaoling’s mind. "So I’ll be able to travel between the two worlds at will?"

"Strictly speaking, not just two worlds, but between infinite worlds and the Astral Realm. Don't forget, there are countless parallel worlds in reality, but only one Astral Realm." Jung tied up the sand-filled bag and patted it, smoothing out the fabric as much as possible. "Sleep now, child. Everything depends on you."

Fang Xiaoling realized the bag had become her pillow, so she lay down on the sand, resting her head upon it. "Ant A will finally have a sanctuary. No matter which piece of paper humans move it to, it can always hide inside that paper filled with stars. With so many papers, it will be very hard for them to find that star-filled one."

"Your analogy is apt, but this is only the first step of an ant fighting back against humanity." Jung sat beside her, looking up at the star-filled sky that had stopped moving once again. "There may be a very long road ahead..."

"This is already amazing. At the very least, it will leave those humans baffled. Maybe they’re looking for me everywhere right now! Hey? Where did that little ant that suddenly disappeared go? Tee-hee." Fang Xiaoling rolled over to face Jung. "Bottle-neck passage—doesn't that name sound a bit dull? I should give it a cooler name!"

"Uh... isn't that a bit premature? It’s like worrying about a name before the child is even born." Jung lay down as well, still gazing at the night sky without blinking.

"If I wait until the child is born, it’ll be too late!" Fang Xiaoling reached out and waved her palm in front of Jung’s eyes. "You’re always staring at the night sky; what exactly are you looking for?"

"I’m just wondering, from which star will the first ray of sunlight appear?"

"You scholars are so fond of letting your minds wander. Can't you let your brain rest for a while?" Fang Xiaoling closed her eyes. "Even I know there is no daytime in the Astral Realm."

Jung did not speak again, but the corners of his mouth were curling upward ever so slightly.